She cringed, smacking her palm to her forehead. There was no way he was going to come, and then she'd have to face him again on Monday and hear his lame excuse as to why he hadn't taken her up on her even more lame offer.
As Drew reached Bunz's car, she shook her head to herself. She could really be a dumbass sometimes.
Chapter Seven
Heath followed behind Rex and Jameson as they walked into Cliff's the next night. Connor had actually gotten "permission" from Lana to have a drink with his brother and Heath was glad for it, although it was a little awkward. They were still working on rebuilding their relationship, but things were gradually getting better.
True to Drew's promise, Cliff's was pretty quiet at eleven on a Saturday night. The game had gone into overtime but would surely be concluding shortly. Then, the sports bars near the field and downtown would be teeming with drunk and enthusiastic fans—hopefully happy ones, if the score was anything to go off of at the moment. The Pirates were leading.
There was a table of some forty-something women nearby, and a table of young entrepreneurial types in the corner—they were the loudest group in there, and Heath suspected it was the start of a bachelor party or something similar. Either way, they were late twenty-somethings with styled hair and designers clothes, ogling the waitresses as they trotted back and forth from the bar to fetch drink refills and snacks. There were a few more patrons in the lounge as well, but otherwise, the large, open space was pretty bare.
They claimed a tall table midway between the door and the bar, with tall stools. Heath opted to stand for a bit, leaning his elbows on the table as he surveyed the room. He counted four waitresses on the floor, mostly waiting on the table of young men. He was sure they were making great tips, but he felt bad for what they were enduring for those tips—he'd seen at least three of them get groped somewhere on their bodies since walking through the door, and there was no shortage of "hey, baby" comments and propositions to follow them home later that night. The waitresses just giggled and acted coy, but Heath could see on their faces that they'd had enough.
The music was generally radio hits with some hip-hop mixed in. He didn't mind the music but felt that it was a bit out of place in a lounge setting such as this—he would have expected to hear jazz playing. As the table of rowdy young men began rapping along with the next song that came up, he wondered if they were commandeering the music as well as all of the waitresses and the attention of the room.
Rex had just started cracking jokes about them when Heath noticed a curvy brunette out of the corner of his eye moving toward their table. She was dressed in the requisite black that all the waitresses seemed to be wearing, although some wore dresses, some wore shorts. He glanced over at the approaching figure and then did a double-take. He had hardly recognized Drew. His eyes moved down her frame as Rex let out a low whistle. Heath kicked him under the table.
"Hey guys," she said, coming to stand at Heath's side, a slightly apologetic note in her voice. "Sorry about the waitresses—that bachelor party is sort of demanding. I'll take your order for now."
He couldn't get over how different she looked than when she came to the gym or even how she'd looked at the café; tonight, she was completely done up, glamorous even, in the fashion of the other waitresses. She wore a sequined scoop-neck black tank top that revealed a generous portion of her cleavage, which was dusted with some sort of shimmery powder, and a pair of short black shorts. Her hair was down and tousled, shining under the dim lights, and she wore heavy eye makeup. He definitely preferred her more natural look because that was just what he was into normally, but he couldn't help admitting that she looked unbelievably sexy right now, too. There was something else about her that he couldn't put his finger on, but it was different.
"Wow, Drew, you look great," Rex said.
"Thanks," she said with a smirk. "You can thank my boss for that. He decided on the dress code." Her eyes lit on Connor, the only one she didn't recognize, and smiled shyly.
Heath was staring at her so hard he didn't immediately realize they were waiting for an introduction until Connor cleared his throat loudly. He shook himself.
"Sorry," he said quickly. "Drew, this is my big brother, Connor. Connor, this is Drew. She's –" He faltered for a moment. What was she? It had been on the tip of his tongue to say customer, client, or something like that, but it didn't quite seem right.
"A friend," Drew finished quickly, offering Connor her hand. "Nice to meet you."
Connor shook her hand and smiled, subtly shooting Heath a quick smile of approval. "Nice to meet you, Drew."